It's rare that a developer listens to the wishes of the masses, but that's exactly what CyanogenMod has done with their new CyanogenMod Installer, which automates the entire ROM installation process on your HTC One or other Android device.

Previously, upgrading from the stock HTC One ROM to CyanogenMod required an unlocked bootloader, a custom recovery, the latest CM version, and Gapps. Let's be honest—unlocking the bootloader is a pain the ass, and probably the only reason stopping most people from trying out CyanogenMod on their devices.

Now, the process is supposed to be completely automated and pain-free, with no need to unlock the bootloader or have a custom recovery already installed. It will actually do both of those for you, in about 10 minutes or less, though we'll still have to flash Gapps ourselves. Let's give it a try and see if works better than the old-install method.

Step 1: Back Up Your HTC One

Before you start doing anything, make sure you back up your phone. Some of you may have your own methods of doing this, but for those of you that don't, here's my suggestion—make sure your HTC One is connected to your Google account and automatically backing up your data.

Step 2: Download the Installer Apps

There are only two things you'll need to download. The CM Installer for Android and the CM Installer for Windows, which work in unison to install the CyanogenMod 10.2 ROM on your HTC One. You can get them both using the links below.

Update: Play Store Version No Longer Available

Step 3: Run the Installer on Your HTC One

Connect your HTC One to your PC via USB and run the application on your phone. It will request you to enable USB debugging—even if yours already is—in order for the program to run on your PC. So, just make sure you've got USB Debugging enabled in the Developer Options in your Settings.

Once it's enabled, the installer will tell you it's done and to refer to your computer for further installation.

Step 4: Run the Installer on Your PC

Locate the program from wherever you saved it (possibly still in your Recent Downloads) and open it up. The installer will run and scan your device, make a connection, then notify you when it's ready to begin installation.

Step 5: Install CyanogenMod on Your HTC One

This step is as easy as clicking the Install button in the PC program. You'll notice here that your phone will then restart to the bootloader.

Step 6: Unlock the Bootloader

This sounds intimidating and annoying, but all you do is continue to follow the on-screen instructions, because this program does it for you. It does all the hard work so you don't have to.

As the instructions above indicate, on your HTC One, select Yes using the volume buttons, then hit the Power button to confirm.

Step 7: Wait It Out

All there is to do now is sit and wait, so find some way to kill time while the program runs its magic.

Make sure your device stays connected throughout the entire process, and refrain from getting bored because the anticipation should be killing you by now.

This could take as little as 10 minutes or as long as 30, it all depends on your device model and carrier. If it takes longer than that, check out our troubleshooting section below for further help.

Step 8: Get Gapps on CyanogenMod

Unfortunately, one of the bigger issues with CyanogenMod is that Gapps are not automatically included in the ROM, due to legalities. Meaning that you'll have to download the Gapps .zip file and flash it via a custom recovery.

Luckily for us, CyanogenMod actually has the ClockworkMod custom recovery installed already, so you don't need to worry about installing one, but you will still need to download the appropriate Gapps .zip file to your phone, which you can get right here.

Step 9: Install Gapps with ClockworkMod

First, you'll need to access the custom recovery that CyanogenMod installed automatically. To do so, just do the following.

Once it refreshes, the new Nightly versions will be available for downloading.

Troubleshooting Tips

For the most part this, installing CyanogenMod on your HTC One with the new CyanogenMod Installers should be a fairly pain-free process. On the Samsung Galaxy S3, it was exactly that—pain-free and done in less than 10 minutes. However, on my particular HTC One (AT&T), it did end up with some hiccups.

The main issue I had was that the phone was almost there, ready to finalize the process, but then the device would remain stuck on the CyanogenMod animation screen.

Did you look up the troubleshooting tips on their wiki page, which was provided above? Sometimes the solution is as easy as trying a new USB port, restarting your computer, or just trying the process all over. Let me know how it works out for you? It's a simple installer, but I noticed that it's also temperamental sometimes.

Hi! New Android modder here. I might have jumped the gun with your tutorial here- I've successfully installed CM 10.2, but realize too late that I wanted to turn s-off first. I've tried rumrunner as I've got hboot 1.55, but it isn't compatible with the CM rom. Any suggestions?

Have you considered using the Revone tool? If you search "Revone s-off" you should get some detailed videos and such. If all else fails, you may just have to revert back to stock rom and do it the old-fashioned way, but hopefully that's not the case.

Can someone help me because my HTC One is stuck at CyanogenMod boot. It just shows the blue ring spinning in circles. I've to to restart the phone and plugging it back to my computer to start where I left off but that doesn't happened. The program told me "The phone couldn't communicate back, retry again"

Don't apologize, we're here to help! And no, gapps will not brick your device. But be cautious, CM was pulled from Google Play. I also ran into troubles with it when I wanted to uninstall it, hopefully you don't.

While on your phone, go to the link here. That will download it directly to your device. Next, you'll need to access the custom recovery that CyanogenMod installed automatically. To do so, just do the following:

Turn off the device.Hold Power and Volume Down simultaneously.Scroll down (using the Volume rocker) to recovery.Select it with the Power button.Now that we're in the custom recovery, let's flash Gapps.

Hey I'm back again. I installed a rooted app called wifikiller and I was on it and my phone kind of closed and rebooted. But its not coming back up its stuck on the cyanogenmod circle boot animation. What I do

It might be an issue with the application. Also, my HTC had some issues with CM being stuck on that boot as well for no reason. I ran through some basic trouble shooting tips, like clearing the cache and restarting.

That's really weird, so when you go to About Phone there's no option for updates? Reading through a CM thread I couldn't find anything similar to your situation. What you may need to do then is manually install the update through custom recovery.

Ya it does not say cm updates anywhere in about phone. Only system but in system updates there was an update but the only thing I saw that changed was the boot animation. How do I do it manually? Do I have to install the update or anything?

i installed ota update for my htc j one which is unlocked using bootloader. i guess it is cyanogen mod. the thing is everytime i try and install the ota update, the phone switches to recovery and aborts the installation. need your help on how can i install the update !

its taking a lot longer than thirty mins to install it says "installing do not unplug your device or reboot your computer" in the bottom left corner it says "installing recovery software" is this how it should be? should i just wait it out?

Help! Followed All Steps up until 7 without a hitch. However, when booting for the first time, A "com.android.keyguard has stopped working" message pops up and will not go away! I've rebooted and nothing changed. Please help, or let me know how I can revert to stock...

Hello, while trying to do what the article says, after I finish everything on the Installer on the phone, I connect it to the PC and the installer never detects it, I tried differe/nt USB cables and different ports, still the same result, Any suggestions

Thanks so much! Your troubleshooting tips helped me out of a bind. I have the AT&T HTC One, and it kept getting stuck, until I did what you suggested and manually entered the recovery mode. Thanks again!!

If you are S-Off you most likely already have and unlocked bootloader. Check your bootloader screen and make sure you see UNLOCKED up top. After that you can flash TWRP and then install the newest CM11 ROM.

I was excited to see how easy this could be to unlock my HTC One. However, when I run the CyanogenMod Installer on my HTC One, it asks me to disable fastboot in my settings. There is no longer a way to disable fastboot in my phone settings. I have the latest Sense and Android 5.0 from AT&T. What are my other options for using CyanogenMod? I'd very much like to rid myself of AT&T's software.

Thanks Andrew. However the prerequisite for unlocking the bootloader in your reference is to have "fastboot disabled in power settings". This not an option on my HTC One phone any longer. It just doesn't exist. Any way around that restriction?